


say it right

by ashleygail



Category: IT (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe- Modern Setting - Freeform, Bookstore AU, Fluff, Hurt and comfort, M/M, Minor Angst, Utterly Shameless Flirting, coffee shop AU, musical theatre, past abusive relationships, slowburn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-07-07 12:03:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,289
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15907905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashleygail/pseuds/ashleygail
Summary: Working side by side with somebody for nine hours a day was bound to end in some sort of friendship. Eddie will continue to tell himself and anybody who asked this until he’s blue in the face. Because that’s all it is, and all it will ever be.[or: Eddie and Richie work together in book cafe, and Richie is determined to turn Eddie into a coffee drinker by making him the perfect drink. And if Eddie happens to fall in love with him in the process, well then that’s just an added bonus.]





	1. Chapter 1

_Five in the morning was an ungodly time for a shift start_ , Richie mentally grumbled to himself as he unlocked the front door to The BrewStore. He loved Beverly with all of his heart, but he didn’t think he’d ever forgive the girl for dropping the job without warning and forcing him to switch to the opening shift.

The morning (and more likely the night before) had clearly left Richie feeling even more out of it then average, because he hadn’t even noticed the person beside him until they tapped on his elbow. Richie let out a loud shout, and leapt several inches into the air. The boy beside him also jumped back, the hood falling from his head and his brown eyes coming to widen across his face.

“Oh! Oh, I’m sorry,” the boy said, sounding both startled and amused. Richie placed his hand over his heart, feeling it racing through his chest. The boy continued to look at him, until Richie realized that he was wasting the time he was  _supposed_ to be spending opening the store, just… staring at this kid at the front door at five in the morning.

“Can I help you?” Richie asked slowly, looking around for the either the camera- to see if he was being punk’d- or the creeping white van that would be waiting to drive up at rapid speed and pull him inside, never to be seen again.

“Oh!” The kid cried, glancing down at his feet quickly. Richie wondered for a moment that, if the sun had been higher in the sky, he’d of been able to see his cheeks pinken. “I’m Eddie, I’m supposed to be helping you open today. For the.. the book side?” Eddie gave a small frown to his now co-worker, and Richie couldn’t keep back his chuckle.

“Yeah, the book side.” Richie nodded, then sighed. “Sure wish I’d been  _told_ that I’d be training today. I hate training… no offense.”

Eddie shrugged. “None taken, I guess. I’m sure training sucks. But I …I’m just going to go out on a limb and assumed your name isn’t Beverly? Because that’s who they told me would be training me today.”

Richie groaned and rolled his eyes. “Yeah, Beverly. That bitch,” he said, without the slightest hint of malice and even a bit of fondness for his best friend. “She dropped her ‘fuck you, i quit’ on the desk a couple days ago and we’ve all been running a little ragged trying to get all her shit covered. I’m Richie.”

Richie let them into the building and smiled to himself when the smell hit him. No matter how many times he walked in here, whether in the middle of the day or beginning of the morning, he couldn’t help but get a little lost in the mixed smell of old books and coffee beans. He’d complain about his job to anybody who’d listen to him, but there were many more things in this place that he loved too much to have left when Beverly walked out. Even with the loss of his only work friend, it wasn’t just the money that kept Richie coming back here.

“So, you’re working for the books only?” Richie asked as he flicked on all the lights. Part of what he loved about this place was the soft lighting. Every other place Richie had ever worked at- and Richie had been holding jobs since he was barely fourteen- had been painfully brightened with fluorescent lightning that left Richie with a headache burning in the back of his eyes. “I hope you’re neat then, because it you aren’t, Stanley will kill you. He’s OCD  _and_ a Virgo.”

“The most deadly combination,” Eddie said with a slight smirk. Richie grinned at him over his shoulder.

“For real, though, the book side is pretty damn easy,” Richie continued. He jumped onto the counter and sat crossed legged. “Especially since you’re the opener, which means you’ll be working the cash. So, you just sit here, look pretty and check people out when they come up with their stuff. Since everything here is second hand, you just type the price on the inside of the cover- it’s written in permanent marker- and then add everything up just like a normal calculator. The most interesting part of your day will be when the cute barista- i.e me – comes over and brings you coffee.”

“Oh, I don’t drink coffee.” Eddie said, slipping off his red hoodie and hanging it on the back of the chair.

Richie blinked at him and then frowned a little bit. “You don’t drink coffee but you’re working in a book coffee shop?”

“Yeah, well, I do read.” Eddie deadpanned, meeting Richie gaze unblinkingly. Richie broke into a large grin.

“What’s that like?” Richie sighed wishfully, pressing the heel of his hand against his forehead. “I never fucking learned how to read.”

Eddie let out a giggle- an honest to god  _giggle-_ and Richie decided then and there that he wanted this kid to become a much more constant feature in his life. “You also never fucking learned how to sit properly,” Eddie teased, shoving at Richie, whom was still seated crossed legged on his counter.

“You know what they say about people who can’t sit properly….” Richie stage whispered, waggling his eyebrows at Eddie. Eddie looked at him in confusion for a moment, before his cheeks turned that shade of pink that Richie had wondered about outside in the dark. Richie laughed and bounced down from the counter, shaking out his curls into his face in what Beverly called his “flirt fringe” and gave Eddie a smirk. “Oh, I promise you, Eddie Spaghetti, I will find the way you drink your coffee and you will have no choice but to fall in love with me.”

“Oh my God, are you always like this?” Eddie laughed with a shake of his head. “And do not even call me Eddie Spaghetti  _ever_ again.”

-

Eddie had spent the first two hours of his shift watching Richie rush around the back of the coffee shop, mowing down a line that was never less than twenty people at a time, completely by himself. It gave Eddie a little pang of a guilt in his gut when he thought about how he and Richie were getting paid the same amount of money while Richie ran himself into dust and Eddie sat back and watched.

“It is what it is, my dear Spaghetti,” Richie had told him as the eight am rush came to an end. “My job can be hell on Earth sometimes, and you get to sit back and look pretty. Until I bring your coffee, which… here.”

Richie slid a drink across in one their plastic cups across the counter to Eddie, who managed to catch it before it fell off to the ground. Eddie scowled at Richie for the lame nickname and then glanced down at the coffee-coloured beverage. “This just looks like a regular iced coffee, Richie.”

Richie smiled. “I’m starting you off slowly, my little book babe. It… yeah, it basically is iced coffee.” Then another group of chattering college girls came into the store and Richie was pushed back to work. With nothing better to do, Eddie gave himself the little moment of privilege to watch Richie work.

Which, truthfully, was what Eddie had been doing when a boy who couldn’t be more than a year or two older than Eddie but was dressed at least fifteen years older, came in. He could really only be Stan, and if Eddie hadn’t already assumed as much, Richie’s over excited shout of “Stan the MAN!” would’ve been a dead giveaway.

Stan gave Richie a pinched look of distaste that settled entirely over his mouth and nose, and in no way reached his eyes, and shook his head. “Control yourself, Tozier. You have customers.”

Richie made loud kissy noises at Stan, matched with the most ridiculous fish face, before turning back to the two girls he was serving. They seemed only high school aged, and were giggling girlishly at Richie’s exaggerated behaviour.

“I hope Richie wasn’t too much for you,” Stan said as he walked over to where Eddie sat alone. “Waking up in the morning doesn’t agree with him, so he drinks way too much coffee during the day shift. It sends his attention deficit entirely too out of sorts, projecting him from mildly annoying to completely unbearable. He certainly isn’t the person I’d want anybody working with on their first shift.”

“I didn’t find him annoying,” Eddie responded honestly.

Stan gave him a look of mild surprise then grinned. “Give him the rest of the shift, you’ve got another seven with him. When Ben gets in at 12, it’ll be worse. Ben is great but those two together…. it’s like they’re on crack, I think. It’s what I imagine people on crack would be like.”

Eddie snickered, and Richie let out an offended noise. “Benjamin Hanscom is the best person I know, Staniel! I won’t stand for this slander!”

“Go clean something,” Stan told him. “Goodness knows you haven’t wiped a single surface since you opened.”

“You have no faith in me,” Richie whined in a wounded tone. “You would never have talked to Beverly like this!”

“That’s because Beverly never set the iced machine on fire,” Stanley shot back. Richie narrowed his eyes but grabbed one of the blue cloths out of a red bucket and brushed it across the counter, repeatedly in the same spot. Eddie pulled his eyes away from Richie’s hands, and forced himself to take a drink from the horribly sweeten coffee-like beverage Richie had given him.

“I’m sure Richie gave you the rundown this morning, because he’s not totally useless,” Stanley said. “You’ve actually got a pretty easy gig here, Eddie. You’re lucky you didn’t end up working behind the  _other_ counter, not that they’re down a body. It’s good to have somebody else over here for the day shifts though, none of the college kids want to work during the day.”

“Are you not in college?” Eddie asked him easily, bringing the green straw to his lip but not being able to force himself to drink from it. Stan blinked at him in confusion.

“No, I am. I’m an accounting major,” Stan said.

Eddie frowned a little bit. “Oh, it’s just the way you said college kids like you, weren’t one… I guess I just-”

Stan was already moving on, continuing on about how working with the books was significantly better than making the drinks at the other counter. Eddie glanced over at Richie slowly, who was watching him with unashamed ease.  _He’s like my grandfather,_ Richie mouthed at him. Eddie bit down hard on his bottom lip to keep from laughing.

Stan didn’t stick around for very long, apparently having taken time from his one day off a week, to pop by and see how Eddie was settling in. He gave him his name tag and left him with a little bit of paperwork that he’d need for his bank statement before leaving. He gave little orders to Richie his entire way out the door, though Richie didn’t look up from his phone.

As soon as Stan was out of sight, Richie was sliding over to where Eddie was seated. He leaned forward to Eddie, planting his elbows on the counter and resting his chin on his knuckles. “So, my dear, how is the drink?”

“It tastes like liquid sugar,” Eddie said, pushing the cup back towards him with a crinkle of his nose.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much all it was,” Richie admitted, prompting Eddie to make an overdramatic gagging noise. “What, don’t make that noise at me! I just assumed that since you didn’t like coffee, it was because it was bitter. So, I did what I could to make it less bitter.”

“Did you just take the pump out and dump unmeasurable amounts of sweet syrup into it?” Eddie demanded. Richie’s  _cat-the-caught-the-canary_ grin was answer enough for him. “That’s not, I’m not accepting anymore drinks from you.”

“Nooooo,” Richie whined, squinting his eyes shut. Eddie’s lip twitched up slightly as he attempted to fight his smile. “Eddie, Eds, Eddie Spaghetti, if I can’t make you drinks, how will you ever fall madly in love with me?”

“That was never going to happen anyway,” Eddie said lightly. Richie cocked his brow up once, turning around and leaning against the counter on his forearms.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Eds. Oh, so, very, very, wrong.”


	2. Chapter 2

Eddie didn’t work with Richie again for three days, instead finding himself forced to get to know the other barista, Greta. Eddie found himself wishing throughout  those days that Richie was working, and told himself that it was because Greta was a total bitch.

Which, she absolutely was. She was snotty and stuck up and seemingly homophobic, if Eddie could find the evidence in the snide comments she’d slung both his way and whenever she mentioned Richie. Stan didn’t seem to particularly like her, either- in a different way then he didn’t seem to like Richie. To Stan, Richie was a decent dude, just a horrible co-worker. Somebody he’d go out and get drinks with, but hated being on shifts with. Greta, though, seemed like somebody Stan was ready to see buried in his backyard and never spoken about again. Eddie couldn’t help but agree.

On Eddie’s fifth day, and final stretch of shifts before his weekend (which was Tuesday and Wednesdays, because logic didn’t apply to minimum wage jobs.) and Eddie had begun to assume that Richie had followed after his original trainer and quit. Then Richie waltzed in at 9:30 and dropped what appeared to be an entire cup of foamed milk onto his desk. “Bet you thought I’d forgotten about you, Eddie Spaghetti.”

“I wish you’d forget about that stupid nickname.” Eddie snarked back, taking the drink in his hand while looking at it skeptically. “And I didn’t think you forgot, I just assumed you had died.”

Richie let out a wistful sigh and let his eyes flutter closed. “No, I wish. Alas, I have been very busy. Creating a whole new world and getting it right for the red curtained display of life.” Eddie must have been staring at him complete confusion because Richie chuckled and dropped from his extra persona. “Film Studies, baby. My screenwriting course has it’s midterms two weeks early because we have to put on a literal play, so Stan let me have this week off to get the shit that I’ve put off all semester done.”

Eddie shook his head. “Why aren’t I surprised that you’re a theater kid?”

Richie’s eyes sparkled as his mouth spread into a wide grin. “Well, I’ve always been told that I have a….  _flare for dramatics,”_ Richie launched his hands out into jazz hands, nearly colliding with the girl walking past him and knocking the drink from her hands. Richie quickly clasped a hand over his mouth and Eddie was sure that his face was bright red from withholding his laughter. “Awe, fuck. My bad.”

Richie pressed his chin to Eddie’s counter- a move that left Eddie cringing and mind reeling over the possible germs- and stared up at him with wide, puppy eyes. “So, Edward, you know about my whole life story-“

“Being a Film Studies major is your whole life story?” Eddie chuckled.

Richie startled for a moment, stumbling over his words, looking to Eddie in mild surprise before the surprised look settling into a mocking frown.  “Fine, have it your way: what are you in for?”

Eddie snickered. “History and English, co-major. Hopefully going to work in a museum, but probably just going to be a teacher. It’s my first year.”

Richie’s mouth dropped open. “No fucking- are you  _eighteen?”_

Eddie shook his head. “No, no. I’m 20, I took two years off after high school for… reasons.”

Richie nodded. ‘I’m twenty- _one.”_ Richie said with an air of false superiority that made Eddie roll his eyes.

“I’ll be twenty-one in December,” he snapped. “I can’t control when my birthday is, Richard.”

Richie’s eyes danced behind his unnecessarily thick-rimmed glasses. “Sagittarius or Capricorn?”

“Sagittarius,” Eddie said slowly. “Are you serious about Zodiac signs? They’re that important to you?”

 “I need to know if we’re compatible, Edward! Otherwise what a waste of my love,” Richie whined loudly.

Eddie shook his head. “That’s insane. Somebody’s zodiac sign isn’t a defining feature of who they are. You can’t base your judgment of them and your relationship on their  _birthday.”_

Richie shrugged one shoulder. “I’m not superstitious but I’m a little stitious.”

“Don’t quote The Office,” Eddie told him. “Quoting The Office is a serious sign of a lack of originality. I thought you were a Film Studies major.”

“I am!” Richie cried, pressing his hand to his chest. “And as a Film Studies major, I can appreciate The Office as the revolutionary piece of television that it is!”

“There’s no such thing as revolutionary television.”

Richie pitched himself up onto the counter and pressed his knees together. “Ed, Edd and Eddie, I thought you said you were history major. Shouldn’t you  _know_ the Office changed the face of comedic television forever? We wouldn’t have half the sit-coms we have today without it, Parks and Rec? Brooklyn Nine-Nine? All thanks to the Office.”

“First of all, I’m pretty sure you’re wrong about that, but you’re the Film Studies dude so just… go off I guess,” Eddie shook his head, grabbing his foamy drink away from Richie’s flying hands. “But I’m history major, you know, of things that actually matter.”

“You’re a terrible historian if you’re going to pretend that film and television aren’t important to our history as the human race,” Richie deadpanned. Eddie opened his mouth to argue, faltered, and clamped it back shut. Richie grinned and reached out to tap at the drink he’d given him. “Are you going to drink that? I crawled my ass out of bed just to get you something.”

“It looks like steamed milk,” Eddie commented. “Is this even coffee, Richie?”

“There’s espresso in it,” Richie replied. “Which is like coffee on crack, so it’s counts.”

“Coffee does  _not_ need to be on crack.” Eddie said, sliding the drink away from Richie and himself. Richie looked ready to pitch an argument when Ben’s voice carried over to them. He walked over with so many books in his arms that it nearly covered his face. Richie’s smirk turned a little more sinister.

“Remember what I said about television? Brooklyn Nine Nine?” Richie whispered to him. Eddie nodded, brow furrowing. Richie raised his voice. “If I run and leap at Ben, he will most certainly catch me in his arms.”

“RICHIE, YOU BETTER FUCKING NOT, I-“ Ben cried, and Eddie startled a little bit. He’d been working with Ben Hanscom for the last four days and had never heard the boy raise his voice even a little bit, let out shout and curse. Richie paid no mind to Ben’s yelling or the mountain of books in his arms, jumped off the counter and ran at Ben. Ben dropped the books at the very last second, his arms opening up for Richie to jump into bridal style. Ben carried him back to the front counter and dropped him back onto the counter. Richie grinned up at him.

“You’re terrible and I can’t believe you’re still employed here.” Ben said before turning back to the mess of books on the floor.

Richie turned to smile at Eddie. “Benny Boy and I have a love story for the ages. Been bosom buddies since puberty. I saved him from being brutally stabbed to death by our towns resident psychopath.”

“You did  _no such thing,”_ Ben called, fighting to get the scattered books back into his hands. “I basically fell to your feet after being stabbed, then your friends made you keep me company while they got help. You told me- and I quote-  _I’m glad I got to meet you before you died.”_

“And we’ve been in love  _ever since,”_  Richie said joyously and Eddie felt a tug of discomfort in his stomach. Ben managed to scoop up all the books and carry them over the counter.

“I’m really glad you’re taking advantage of the days off that Stan gave you,” Ben said deadpan as Eddie grabbed hold of the books and began marking them with his Sharpie. “Have you done anything productive besides coming in and flirting with my new cashier?”

“Stanley has had a terrible influence of you, Benjamin. Where did my soft husband go?” Richie whined, and Ben just shook his head. “Fine, I’ll have you know that we’ve managed to finish everything  _ahead of time,_ so suck my dick for not believing in me. I just wanted to stop by and invite you and Eddie out tonight to celebrate with Mikey Bev and I.”

“Me?” Eddie squeaked. Richie turned to him and gave him a large smile.

“But, of course, my Spaghetti! How could I not invite somebody so gosh darn  _adorable_ out with us?” Richie reached out and pinched at Eddie’s cheeks, which Eddie quickly swatted away. “Especially since you just told me it’s your first year so there’s no way you’ve gotten yourself acquainted with bar scene here yet.”

“It’s not really my thing,” Eddie said quietly and Richie shook his head.

“How could you know it’s not your thing if you haven’t gone yet?” Richie pushed. “I promise you’ll tolerate Bev and absolutely adore Mike. Everybody adores Mike.”

Ben nodded at that, cheeks pinking up slightly. “Richard, do you have invitations for the entire staff?”

Richie shot him a dirty look. “If by the entire staff you mean Greta, Victor or Stanley, then no… but Stan will probably be there since we both know Mike wants to suck his dick.” Eddie made an awkward noise in the back of his throat and Ben closed his eyes. Richie merely laughed and tossed an arm around Eddie’s shoulder. “Don’t worry, Eds, there won’t be any dick sucking tonight unless you wanna have our little after part-”

“Get  _off_ me, pervert!” Eddie shoved Richie away, but he couldn’t help the small laugh that tumbled from his mouth.

Richie jumped from the counter. “Well, I have delivered my message and my drink. Ben, I’m leaving it in your faithful hands to make sure Eddie comes out tonight.”

“How do you know  _I’m_ going to come?” Ben challenged. Richie merely laughed and left. Ben sighed but Eddie could see the fond seeping all over Ben’s face. Ben’s eyes fell down onto the foamy drink on Eddie’s desk and he curled his nose up. “Did Richie make you that?”

Eddie nodded solemnly. Ben made an even more disgusted face, grabbed it from the counter and tossed the full beverage into the waste basket.

“Don’t drink it. It’s a trap.”

-

 

* * *

 

 

Eddie tugged on the sleeves of his sweater, pulling them over his hands. September was flying by, and the weather was rapidly portraying the Hallowe’en spirit that Eddie saw in every store. He walked alone down the darkened road to the spot where Ben had texted him to meet up if he were going to go out with them. He didn’t  _have_ to go, Ben had made the very clear but Eddie still felt a little tug towards a night at the bar with Richie and his friends.  

He saw the gathering of young adults standing on the edge of the corner, and his heart jumped a little bit in his chest. He stared at them for a moment before dropping his gaze to his feet, cheeks heating up. It was almost embarrassing how quickly he’d grown to like Richie Tozier. It was only logical, Eddie told himself. Spending nine hours a day with somebody for days on end could only end in some sort of friendship. If he chose to ignore the fact that he actually hadn’t actually been doing all that much working with Richie, spending most of the  _wishing_ he was working with Richie.

“Edward!” Richie called out, bounding up from underneath somebody’s arm as ran towards Eddie. He looked much more put together they he normally did when he danced into the Brewstore. He was wearing ripped jeans with boots that might actually have had sparkles on them, Eddie couldn’t tell in the darkness. His shirt was terribly pattern and pink to boot, but he had a deep pink hat crushed over top of wild curls that Eddie couldn’t help but find adorable.

“Nice hat,” Eddie said, reaching up to push it slightly away from Richie’s eyes. Richie’s cheeks pinkened and he ducked his head away. He bit his lip as he smiled at the ground. “The beanie really completes your whole douchebag hipster look.”

Richie made a shocked noise and looked up at Eddie with a pout. “It’s not a beanie! It’s a  _toque._ I’m Canadian.”

Eddie frowned deeply. “Are you really?”

Richie waggled his brow. “You’ll never know.”

“RICHARD!” A female voice called out to them, causing Eddie to jump away from Richie. A short redheaded girl walked over, tucking her hands into her overalls that she’d matched with a yellow crop top and a hat that seemed to be made of denim. Eddie felt oddly overdressed in his pressed jeans and soft blue cashmere sweater. As though somehow sensing Eddie’s distress in the casual wear, the woman who could only be Beverly, dropped her hand down and fiddled the fabric. “Stop hogging the fresh blood. Not all of us have had the pleasure.”

“ _Some_ of us would have had the pleasure already,” Richie sang, knocking Beverly’s hand away from Eddie’s sleeve and flashing her a grin. “If they hadn’t walked out on their job without warning.”

Beverly held her hands up in surrender. “I’m sorry, Rich, I just couldn’t handle working with you anymore. I couldn’t do one more day of it.” She winked at Eddie, who muffled back a snicker.

Richie turned to look at him with a wounded expression. “Do  _not_ encourage her, Edward! You’re mine, you’re not allowed to side with her about me.” Eddie opened his mouth to argue before hesitating. Richie was no longer looking at him, but glancing down at the ground with his teeth dug into his bottom lip. Eddie glanced over at Beverly, who was giving Richie a troubled look. Richie made eye contact with Beverly and gave a slight shake of his head, and broke into a 20 watt grin. “Come along, my darlings,” he called in a terrible British accent. “We have a get night ahead of us.”

“Rich…” Beverly called out, voice dying out on the end of the nickname. She glanced at Eddie, who was already looking at her. For a moment, it seemed almost as though Beverly was going to tell him something important but in the last moment, she merely gave him half a smile and a shrug. By the moment Eddie and Beverly had reached the rest of the group, Richie was tucked back underneath the arm of a muscular black man who was patting Richie softly on the head. Eddie’s stomach did an uncomfortable flip, and he had to bite back the urge to run back home.

“Guys, this is Eddie.” Beverly said cheerfully, her hand coming back to fidget with Eddie’s sweater sleeve.

Richie made a scoffing noise into the other man’s shoulder. “Uh,  _yeah,_ Ringwald, the only person who doesn’t know that is Mikey here. Since none of the rest of us walked out of our jobs.”

“Are you ever going to let that go, Tozier?” Stan- looking just as proper as he did in the work environment, Eddie noted- said dryly.

“Absolutely not for at least another month,” Richie replied, pulling himself away from Mike’s hold.  Richie made eye contact with Eddie, and gave him what could almost be considered an apologetic look, then moved to link his arm through Eddie’s. “Let’s go, my favourite bitches. We have a GREAT night ahead of us, no excuses.”

-

 

* * *

 

 

Eddie Kaspbrak is a light weight. This is a fact he’s known about himself for awhile now, never having really indulged in alcohol during his formative years in high school. Aside from the very occasional party he’d managed to sneak out to with his best friend, Bill, Eddie had never had much opportunity to test out his alcoholic limits and always ended up completely shitfaced. And if sober Eddie Kaspbrak had a short fuse,  _drunk_ Eddie Kaspbrak had no fuse at all. So, he’d vowed to himself while going out to only have one drink.

If it was one thing Eddie Kaspbrak took deathly serious, it was a promise. Even one to himself, so yeah, that was why Eddie was drinking. He’d spent the better part of an hour watching Richie and wondering why  _he_ wasn’t drinking. So, after enough wondering to drive him up the damn wall of this bar, Eddie came to the conclusion to simply just… ask.

“Why aren’t you drinking?” Eddie asked, dropping Richie in the booth. Throughout the night, it had seemed as though Richie and Eddie had gotten progressively further apart and it had surprisingly been fine. Eddie didn’t think he’d ever meshed with a group of people so quickly in his life. Truthfully, he’d never really meshed with a group of people before but everybody here was great and Eddie liked them a lot. Maybe he would have liked to have more time with Richie, but he couldn’t complain with spending time with anybody here. Even Stan was a joy to be around, seemingly softened by the presence of Mike.

Richie tilted his head slightly and gave Eddie a soft look. “I don’t drink.” He said, in a voice more serious than Eddie had heard him use in the few weeks since he’d met him. Richie twirled the cup of dark pop behind his hands, leaving a wet ring on the table, and sighed. “I’ve had my fair share of people in my life who had a better relationship with alcohol than with me, and it’s kind of turned me off of the shit.”

“Oh.” Eddie said, feeling his face flush. “I’m sorry, Richie, I shouldn’t have asked… It isn’t any of my business-“

“It’s okay,” Richie shook his head, a small smile still stretched on his face. “I know you noticed me acting weird earlier- or I guess,  _not acting weird,_ since I’m always a fucking weirdo- so I was kind of expecting you to come call me out on something earlier.”

“I didn’t want to…” Eddie inhaled then sighed. “I haven’t known you for long, and I haven’t hung out with any of these guys before so I guess I just… didn’t want to overstep-“

“Hey, hey, no,” Richie cut across him. “Eds… Eddie… Edward… I’m telling you right now that basically decided that terrible morning shift I met you that you were going to be important to me so I’d answer any question you asked me. Any fucking question. Even if that question is how big my dick is.” Eddie squawked awkwardly and Richie snickered. “The answer is nine inches, by the way.”

“Richie, I never fucking-“ Eddie coughed. “Wait, are you for real? Nine- no, no, do  _not_ answer that! I don’t want to know!”

Richie cackled, tossing his head back. His eyes light up in a way that Eddie hadn’t seen all night and it made his heart leap in happiness. He’d do anything to make sure Richie Tozier’s eyes stayed light up like that, and he never looked as uncomfortable as he had this evening.

Eddie cleared his throat. “I do have a question, though. It’s serious so take it fucking seriously, Richard.”

Richie’s eyebrows disappeared under his curly fringe.

“Are you actually Canadian?”

Richie laughed so hard that his pop came spraying out of his nose. He coughed aggressively, Eddie reaching out to pat him roughly on the back until he could breathe again. “Oh, my Eds, I fear… that is the one question I may never answer.”

“Are you always this damn dramatic?”

“All my sources say yes, absolutely.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> two weeks and a lot of muffled screaming into pillows later, and i'm back with an update! im sorry if this chapter is kind of weak, it is- admittedly- filler :) i stg the last 4 chapters are were It's At. 
> 
> But also: hey: Bill DOES exist in this universe :D

The next morning Eddie was twenty-five minutes late, and Richie was getting antsy. He sat behind the counter, leg bouncing nervously, Eddie’s quickly cooling latte between his hands. Thus far, all the cold drinks Richie had attempted had failed terribly, so he supposed he had nothing to loose with trying warmth. Richie would loose all chance of converting him to a coffee drinker if Eddie stopped working here.

Just as Richie was starting to give up on ever seeing Eddie’s adorable face again, the boy came flying in the front doors. His clothes were twisted as though he’d physically thrown himself into them, and his hair was wet against his forehead. Richie’s heart felt ready to explode in his chest, and he knew he was supporting a more than slightly goofy grin.

“Oh, my GOD! Richie, I am so sorry! My alarm didn’t go off and I literally woke up like less than 40 minutes ago, I had to run here in the-“ Eddie finally looked up at Richie and all his words died on his tongue. “Oh _fuck,_ Richie, what the hell happened to you?”

Well, shit. Richie had almost forgotten about the terrible state of his face in the cuteness overload that was a slept-in Eddie Kaspbrak. His hand came up to tap at the cut underneath his eye and winced. “Oh, you know me, Spaghetti. Always running my mouth, it’s bound to happen sometimes.”

Eddie frowned deeply. “You told me last night at the bar that you’d answer any question I asked you. Are you going to answer them with lies?”

“Not lies,” Richie said lightly. “Maybe some half-truths.”

“You don’t have to tell me,” Eddie said, voice soft and almost cautious. For the first time since Richie had met Eddie, he got the vibe that Eddie didn’t trust him. Maybe Eddie trusting him was too high an expectation, for somebody he’s only known for about a week and a half, but without noticing Richie had opened himself up and he really liked Eddie. The cute boy had gotten under Richie’s skin without even trying.

“No, I-” Richie cleared his throat. “An old boyfriend is in town and thought it important to remind me why he’s an ex.”

Eddie’s mouth dropped open and then he frowned softly. His fingers reached out and grazed against the bruised skin. Richie winced slightly but his cheeks warmed under the gentle touch either way. Eddie had a million questions streaming through his mind but he knew he wouldn’t be able to bring himself to ask them just now. The time wasn’t right and Eddie wasn’t sure if it would ever truly be right.

 Richie’s soft smile turned into a goofy grin and Eddie knew then that the open moment was over. Richie smacked an overly wet kiss to Eddie’s cheek that made Eddie wince in mild disgust. “I made us a work playlist!” Richie cheered, moving over to hook his phone up to the blue tooth docking station behind the café counter. “I created it with you in mind, Eddie Spaghetti. Just you.”

Richie hit play and _Fireflies_ by Owl City began to play through. Eddie startled and he rushed over to look at the playlist. Richie laughed happily as Eddie started scrolling through the playlist as the horror rushed over his body. “Okay, you cannot be serious!” Eddie whined, looking up at Richie in distress. “This is a joke, right? Please tell me this is some extremely not funny joke.”

“I would never joke about memes,” Richie responded and… God help him, Eddie believed him.

-

_The Bird is the Word_ was playing and Eddie was able ready to quit on the spot when Stanley came in. He blinked in confusion for a moment, looking towards the sky as to why this terrible song was playing, before his eyes fell to Richie. He opened his eyes, seemingly ready to demand that Richie turn the track off, before he caught full sight of Richie.

Richie noticed Stan looking at him and jerked his head awkward, seemingly attempting (and failing) to cover the cuts and bruises along the left side of his face. Stan’s mouth settled in a disapproving straight line. He held his hand up and tilted his finger in a command for Richie to approach. Richie sighed and whispered to Greta before walking over to where Stan was waiting.

Eddie wished that they were standing close enough to him that he were able to hear what was being said, but he knew that logically they’d have purposely stood away from Eddie’s line of hearing. He could see them, though, at it appeared at first as though Stan was lecturing Richie. Richie’s shoulder were brought up towards his ears, and his cheeks had started to turn pink.

The lecturing stance seemed to get lost rather quickly, as Stan’s hand came forward to cup the side of Richie’s head. It appeared as though Richie tilted towards Stan’s touch, but Eddie was too far away to be able to tell if that had truthfully happened or if Eddie was seeing things. Whether the soft touching was true or part of Eddie’s active imagination, it still left an uneasy feeling in his stomach that forced him to turn away. He didn’t know how long it was before a bright yellow drink was being tossed down in front of him and Richie was grinning down at him.

“Why so glum Edward my darling?” He asked, and Eddie was pretty sure if it was possible, his actual heart was blushing in that moment. He moved to wrap his hands the disgustingly yellow drink and forced himself not to stare at the swelling of Richie’s bottom lip.

“Do you want to do something after work?” Eddie surprised himself by asking, and Richie’s eyebrows disappeared under his messy fringe. “I uh- I wanted to make more friends outside of just work and school and I- if you wanted to…”

“Take a breath!” Richie snickered, reaching and pinching at Eddie’s cheeks. Eddie squawked awkwardly and swatted Richie’s hands away from him. “Of course we can do something, Spaghetti Man.” Eddie openly gagged at the disgusting nickname and Richie laughed joyously. “Have you seen the new Avengers movie?”

 Eddie felt himself flushing deeply. Richie’s eyes scanned over his face and he bit at his own bottom lip. A quick wince at the forgotten about pain made Eddie’s stomach jumped and he fought off the urge to move his finger to sooth the swollen flesh. “Why do you look like I just asked you if your circumcised?”

 Eddie choked on the air around him and thought for a moment that he was actually going to have to use his inhaler for the first time in seven months, but thankfully found that ability to breathe again. “That’s just… Jesus _Christ,_ Richie.” Eddie shook his head, letting his hands scrape through his curls. Of course, normally those curls would have been forced away before he so much as thought about leaving his apartment, but that hadn’t been option for his late ass this morning. “I’ve just never actually… _seen_ a Marvel before.”

Richie’s mouth dropped open and he stared at Eddie, wordlessly, for so long that Eddie was actually afraid that he’d taken the trashmouthed boy’s ability to create words away from him. Richie physically shook his head. “Are you telling me… you’ve _never_ seen a single Marvel movie?”

Eddie bit back that snarky response of how _clearly_ that’s what he’d been saying- considering it was exactly what he’d said- and just sighed. “My mom didn’t let me watch any superhero movies or anything like that when I was a kid because they were _too violent,”_ Eddie sighed. “By the time I was actually allowed to watch them, because there was so many that I didn’t know where to start so I just never did.”

Richie was still staring at him, seemingly scandalized. “Absolutely unacceptable, Edward.” Richie held his hands up in front of him as though he were warding off pure evil. “HAYSTACK!!” His scream was loud enough to make Greta drop the coffee she’d been making and swear loudly, which- of course- only made Richie’s grin wider. “Marvel marathon at Eddie’s tonight!”

Ben made a face, glancing back and forth between Eddie and his best friend. “Rich, we’ve talked about this. You can’t just invite people over to other people’s houses.” 

Richie gave his the most exaggerated pout that Eddie had seen to date. “I’m not! Eddie _wanted_ to have people over! That’s what he said!”

_Was_ that what Eddie had said? _Yes,_ his brain said. He wanted to make real friends, not just people he’s friendly with at work or in his classes. He’d wanted people to come over- maybe not necessarily for a Marvel marathon but he wasn’t too upset about that. And yet… the clenching in his heart tells him that maybe it had been what he’d _said,_ but it hadn’t been what he’d _meant._

-

Richie had absolutely no sense of personal space, this was something Eddie probably could have told you about him from the first second he’d laid eyes on the boy that morning they first opened together. Normally, that was enough of a quality of person to make Eddie avoid a person as though they carried the actual black plague within their skin. Richie though… he managed to be very many things that Eddie had always avoided (loud, messy, touchy) but Eddie still felt himself being drawn to him as though it were completely out of his control.

“Oh, w-wow, Eddie is in love,” Eddie’s best friend Bill chuckled when Eddie called him that night before everybody was expected to arrive for the movie night. Growing up it had always been Eddie and Bill against the world- somehow Bill Denbrough had managed to actually reach Sonia Kaspbrak’s impossible standards in a person and was granted permission to spend time in Eddie’s presence. When Bill had gone away for school the summer after high school, it was the hardest thing Eddie had ever had to do. He now how to face the world (and his mother) completely on his own for the first time. He hadn’t thought he’d be able to survive it, but he had and he’d survived the next year too, and he’d moved away for school without even worried about how far it was away from his best friend. Not to say that it wasn’t hard, because of fucking course it was, being further away than they’d ever been before but Eddie had learned in the two years of being stuck in Derry that he didn’t _need_ Bill around him to be okay. That he could make it completely and utterly on his own if he so needed to.

 “Oh my God, please _shut up,”_ Eddie whined, laying across the living room floor. He knew that what he REALLY needed to be doing right now was making sure his house was spotless and that he didn’t look like a complete slop when everybody came over but he couldn’t bring himself to stop wallowing on his floor. “I barely even know these people, I just met them like…. a week ago and Richie… Richie is _obnoxious.”_

“Is that yuh-you’re opinion or just what you want to tuh-think about him?” Bill’s voice was light and sing song-y and it made Eddie want to get on a plane, fly back to Maine and punch him in the chest. “Because it doesn’t suh-sound like you find him uhb-uhb… fuck… annoying.”

Eddie sneered, knowing that while Bill couldn’t see him doing it, he’d likely know about it anyway. “Fuck off, seriously, Denbrough. Not everybody walks in to the first day of class and falls madly in love with the first person he sees.”

He could practically hear Bill rolling his eyes. “Eddie, suh-seriously… Don’t do what I know you’re going to do.”

Eddie made an offended noise, picking at a the strings in his carpet. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, William.”

Bill scoffed loudly. “Okay, fine, Eddie, suh-suh-sure. All I’m suh-saying is that if you do The Thing where you puh-puh-push this guy away, I think you’re going to really regruh-regret it. He seems like he could be really guh-good for you.”

            “Why are we talking about this as though there’s literally _anything_ going on between us at all?” Eddie groaned, feeling his cheeks burning. “He and A WHOLE GROUP of people are coming over to watch movies. It’s not like it’s a date. We can’t be _good for me,_ because there’s no him and me.”

“You like him.”

Eddie sighed and squeezed his eyes shut. “I don’t know, this is like… my first experience outside of Derry. The only person I’ve ever really thought I liked before was _you_ and no offense, but I was really really really wrong about that.”

There was a moment of dead air over the phone before Bill spoke up again. “Three really’s? Was that necessary?”

A smile tugged at the corners of Eddie’s cheeks. “Honestly? Yeah, kind of. You’re a terrible boyfriend Bill, I’m surprised Audra has put up with you for this long.”

“I’m hanging up now, rude ass.” Bill laughed. “Audra is waiting for her tuh-tuh-terrible boyfriend and I cant keep the fuh-fair maiden waiting.”

“Stop writing that stupid period story,” Eddie complained. “I’m getting tired of the terrible references. Stick to horror, Billy.”

 “It can be buh-both,” Bill said mysteriously before hanging up without a goodbye. Eddie scoffed at his best friend’s predictable and vaguely dramatic behaviour, and pushed himself up off the floor. He barely had enough time to clear out the living room of all his school stuff and tossed a hoodie over his tank top before there was a distinct banging on his front door.

 As Richie pushed his way into the room, with Ben and Bev right behind him, and pressed an overly wet kiss to Eddie’s cheek was when Eddie Kaspbrak realized that he was utterly and irreversibly _fucked._  


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> halfway done :D @reddie im sorry

Eddie wasn’t sure when it had started, him and Richie just hanging out, though he supposed it must trace back to the night of the Marvel Marathon. It hadn’t been so much of a Marathon, as it was just one Avenger movie and half a Captain America before Ben and Bev started to fall asleep then left. Richie, though, Richie had stayed for the rest of the movie and even agreed to stay and watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine after it was over. The two of them had fallen asleep in a heap on Eddie’s couch, nearly making Eddie late for work the next morning. After that, it had become a sort of thing for them. Eddie and Richie, hanging out, doing things together, just the two of them.

Eddie was quickly learning things about Richie that he hadn’t known during the few weeks they’d been working together. Like how there was a slight hint of mango that surrounded him, which progressed to him learning that it was from the chapstick he used. Richie Tozier wasn’t the type of person to indulge in skin care routine, but he had a bad habit of licking his lips and the chapstick was the only thing that stopped them from getting painfully dry. Or how the holes in all of Richie’s ripped jeans are twice as big as when he bought them, because Richie had a habit of picking at them when his hands grew idle. Or how Richie’s socks never- _never_ \- matched. Eddie wasn’t sure he even owned a pair of socks but had just found an offbeat store that only sold singular socks.

It was nice, Eddie was really starting to settle into a groove. Until Richie went and changed all the rules. [..]

Richie came up to him at work, about two weeks after their Marvel Marathon at Eddie’s apartment, face seeming unusually flushed. He placed a mocha-coloured drink in front of Eddie before reaching out to cover one of Eddie’s hands with his two larger ones. “So, I’ve been thinking…”

“Don’t hurt yourself, Rich,” Eddie replied, throat suddenly unimaginably dry.

Richie gave him a small smile, a smile that sang out insecurities and doubts that Eddie had rarely seen in his friend since they’d met. “I was thinking… I have a lot of fun hanging out with you, Eds.”

Eddie’s heart vibrated in his chest and he tilted his hand upside down to tangle his fingers in with Richie’s. “I have fun, too.”

“Right, yeah, I-“ Richie pressed his front teeth into his bottom lip, eyes trailing momentarily down to their now joined hands. “So, I was thinking… that maybe we could… hang out for a dinner and movie or something tonight… you know, like a real date this time?”

Eddie suddenly then realized the situation they were currently in: standing on either side of the counter, hands joined together while staring into each other’s eyes. If his heart hadn’t already been pounding, now it was going completely nuts. Stomach tangling up in knots, Eddie felt his face burning and heat crawling all the wat down the back of his neck.

“Yes.” Eddie said, maybe a little too quickly, definitely a little too loudly. Richie’ broke into the widest grin that Eddie had see on his face yet, and it didn’t matter how loudly he’d just replied. “Yes, absolutely, yes, I would like that.”

“Great! That’s- yeah, fuck, that’s great,” Richie took his hands back as Greta began to yell in his direction. “Okay.. Okay I’ll meet you outside the pizza place on Main? At 5:30? We can get pizza, I’ll even let you put green peppers on it this time.”

“TOZIER!” Greta screamed through the building, taking away Eddie’s chance to reply. “YOU’RE NOT GETTING PAID TO FLIRT WITH YOUR TWINK BOYFRIEND. GET OVER HERE AND WORK.”

Richie merely winked and skipped back towards the coffee counter, seemingly completely unaware of how Eddie’s stomach had sunk into his shoes.  _Boyfriend?_ Was that Eddie was now, Richie’s boyfriend? Richie hadn’t corrected Greta, did that mean that was what  _Richie_ wanted Eddie to be? Eddie had never been happier that his shift ended a couple hours before Richie’s did.

xxx

“I still don’t know what you’re fuh-freaking out about.” Bill’s bored voice droned through Eddie’s speaker as Eddie stood staring at himself in the mirror. He should be getting ready for his date, he knew this. He was supposed to meet Richie in less than an hour, and he was still standing in his towel. Doubt was coursing through his veins and he knew if he didn’t calm down soon he was going to need his inhaler. “He asked you ouh-out and now you’re wuh-worried he  _likes_ you?” 

Eddie groaned deeply, rubbing his hands angrily up his cheeks. “No, I’m not... I... Maybe... you know, what if we break up? I’ll have to quit my job and I  _like_ my job! I need a job- I don’t need a boyfriend.”

“Eddie, take it down!” Bill called, sounding half annoyed and half amused. “Don’t you think you should go on that first date before you start spiraling on what will happen when you and Richie break up?”

“ _When_ we break up?” Eddie asked, voice pitching. “So you agree that we’ll break up?” 

“Eddie, statically, you’ll either bruh-break up or one of you will duh-duh-die.” Bill deadpanned, causing Eddie to groan all the louder and sink to the bathroom floor in his towel.

“You’re the least helpful person I’ve ever met, do you know that, William?” Eddie challenged. “Have I ever told you that?”

“It’s come up once or twice, yeah,” Bill replied, smirk evident in his voice. “Eddie… I’m serious, don’t let fear of bruh-breaking up stop you from ever dating somebody. From what I can tell you, you ruh-ruh-really like Richie.”  

It almost went without saying that Bill was right- Eddie _did_ like Richie a whole lot. He’d agreed to the date immediately, not giving it any thought in the heat of the moment until the word “boyfriend” had turned the excitement in his heart into fear. There was little to nothing that Eddie didn’t like about Richie, and even the things he might not love but the boy- he still found himself smiling about them, because they were a part of who Richie was. Things that would normally make Eddie run screaming from another person were somehow endearing with Richie, and that wasn’t news to him or to Bill. Of course Eddie liked Richie, there was no arguing that.

“Is it really worth it to miss out on your chance with Richie, out of fuh-fuh-fear of how it might end?” Bill’s tone was light, walking lightly over what he knew what was thin ice.

Eddie swallowed harshly, thinking of what life could be like with Richie. It could be great, Eddie knew, he _knew_ he’d be happy being with Richie. No questions about it. At the same time, he couldn’t stop imagining what would happen should he and Richie break up. Everything would awkward and awful, and he’d loose the friendship he and Richie had built over the last two months.  

“You’re right,” Eddie said lightly. “So I- I gotta go. I gotta get ready for my date.”

“That a boy, Eddie!” Bill cheered in the phone. “Go get ‘em!”

Eddie mustered up as cheerful a response as he could to Bill before hanging up. He stared at himself for a long moment, before walking into his bedroom and crawling into his bed.

xxx

It was 5:45 before Richie sent Eddie a text. He’d been more than willing to accept that Eddie was running late, he seemed like the kind of perfectionist that wouldn’t leave the house for a date until everything about his outfit and his hair was flawless. To Richie, of course, Eddie could show up in his pajamas and still look amazing but the first official date might be a little early to mention that.

But five minutes turned into ten, then fifteen and Richie was starting to feel a little on edge.

 

**To Angel Faced Book Boy @ 5:45: hey eds! im outside :-) let me know when your almost here!**

**To Angel Faced Book Boy @ 5:57: u know the place right? do u need directions?**

**To Angel Faced Book Boy @ 6:09: eddie? are you coming?**

Richie pocketed his phone, shivering from his stand outside and wiped quickly at the tears that were threatening to fall from his eyes. His stuffed his hands into the pockets of his hoodie and kicked at the sideway. His original plan had been to walk Eddie home after the movie, maybe give him the chance for a kiss if he got the vibe from Eddie, but that last thing he wanted right now was to be alone for another second. He only had one contact in his phone in town with a car- a number he should have deleted a long time ago.

He dials anyway.

“Hey. Can you come pick me up?”


	5. Chapter 5

Radio silence. That was the only way that Eddie could describe his current status with Richie.

It had been almost quarter to eight before Eddie had responded to the texts from Richie, the feeling of guilt in his gut and something much more painful in his chest completely overwhelming him.

**To Richie Tozier @ 7:43: Richie I am so so sorry**

**To Richie Tozier @ 8:03: If you want we could go grab coffee or something and talk about this please**

**To Richie Tozier @ 8:09: I know I deserve to be ignored but please let me know that you’re okay Richie**

Eddie had the next two days after his skipped date with Richie and he nearly wore a path in his living room flooring, and ignoring at least four phone calls and texts from Bill demanding to know how his date with Richie had gone. It made Eddie want to throw up, just the idea of talking to Bill and telling him what he’d done, how he’d hurt Richie. It broke Eddie down, wanting to walk down to the Brewstore and see Richie, corner him and try to talk to him or even just make sure he was okay but he everytime he got close to leaving his apartment, the burning anxiety of fear towards a fight with Richie had him running back to the safety of hiding under the blankets in bed.

Eddie almost called into work on Tuesday morning but he knew that he wouldn’t be able to afford that kind of behaviour. It seemed, of course, that he didn’t need to be afraid of anything when he caught sight of Ben opening the store. “Did I get the schedule messed up, are you supposed to open today?”

“No.” Ben said shortly, a simple, detached tone that was so different from the usual warmth in Ben Hanscom’s voice.  Eddie’s stomach churned and he fidgeted with the tips of his fingers. “I’m opening for Richie.”

Eddie swallowed harshly. “Is Richie… Where’s Richie?”

Ben shot Eddie a look over his shoulder that for most people would be expressionless, but in two months of working with Ben Hanscom… Eddie knew it was a dirty look. “He went home to visit his parents. His dad picked him up two days ago.”

“He’s… gone?” Eddie asked, his own voice barely coming out. An uncomfortable expression came over Ben’s face, almost as though he was contemplating something. He looked Eddie over once, twice, three times before sighing.

“He’s not _gone_ gone. He’ll be back.” Ben said, tone not _exactly friendly_ but quite a bit warmer than before. “He put in emergency vacation for the week. He still has school stuff anyway.”

Eddie nodded, and followed Ben into the building. He watched Ben move towards the coffee counter but reached out to grab him on a reflex. “Ben I… I know you know what I did. I just wanted to say…”

“I like you, Eddie,” Ben interrupted, shaking his head so slightly that he might not have even been aware that he was doing it. “I think you’re a good guy, I really do, but Richie is my _best_ friend. We have been through so much shit together, for _years._ And you hurt him, Eddie. You hurt him so bad he _went home to his parents._ He hasn’t done that since…” A dark look came over Ben but Eddie could simply tell that it wasn’t directed at him. Ben cleared his throat. “I don’t think you meant to hurt him so badly and I don’t doubt that you had your reasons. But I don’t care about those reasons- I _can’t_ care about those reasons. The only thing I have time to care about right now is Richie and making sure that Richie is okay.” 

Eddie swallowed hard and forced back the tears. “You’re a really great guy, Ben.”

Ben smiled softly. “You are, too, Eddie. And Richie will give you another chance, probably three or four of them if needed, when he’s ready. See to it that you only need one, or I won’t try to stop Bev from hurting you.” Eddie laughed, a sad and wet sound, and Ben’s smile dipped down in slight concern. “Stop looking like a kicked puppy when I’m trying to convince myself that you’re the bad guy. Please.”

“I can’t help it that I’m pathetic.” Eddie whined tearfully, wiping at his face frantically as the tears started to fall. “I’m just so pissed at myself for hurting Richie, I just… I just didn’t want anybody to get hurt so I thought it would be easier if we didn’t start dating at all but then I didn’t go and he got hurt and knowing I hurt him just hurts so fucking bad, you know? Because like Richie… he’s the like the _first guy_ that I’ve really and I… and you said you didn’t want to know my reasons and here I am spilling them out to you anyway like a fucking idiot I’m so sorry I…” Eddie got caught off by Ben coming forward and wrapping Eddie up into his arms. Ben held him there for a long moment, slightly rocking them. Eddie let out a shaky laugh. “Has anybody ever told you that you give great hugs, Ben Hanscom?”

Ben laughed, too. “Richie, at least once a day. Bev, too, actually.” Eddie tucked his head deeper into Ben’s neck and he felt more than heard Ben sighing. “Alright, Eddie… I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt for like one second and you’re going to pretend that I didn’t.”

Eddie pulled away slightly, frowning at Ben. Ben glanced around, almost though making sure that there was nobody around despite the knowledge that it would be only Ben and Eddie working for at least the next three hours. “Richie will definitely be back by Friday night because that’s when his group has to put on their play. Richie may not seem like somebody who takes this seriously-“

“I’ve never thought that,” Eddie interrupted on a reflex, and an odd expression came over Ben’s face.

“I just…” Ben ran fingers through his hair. “Richie takes his theatre stuff really _really_ seriously. He’d never miss a show, and he’s really intense about this one. I thought Mike was going to beat him by the end of it, but I know it’s going to be amazing.”

“What are they doing?” 

Eddie asked, fighting off the urge to crack his knuckles.

“They have to adapt some sort of novel and make it a musical,” Ben said, a small smile coming over his face. “Bev put up a big fit about doing some Stephen King book, even though Mike told her a hundred times how hard it’ll be to re-create telekinesis on a stage. But anyway…” Ben shook his head, getting off track and knowing it. “We all have tickets and backstage access because all our friends are in the play and wrote it. And… because I’m giving you the stupid benefit of the doubt… you’re coming, too.”

Eddie’s eyes blew wide. “Wait, no, Ben, I really shouldn’t. Richie is _definitely_ mad at me and I’ve never read or seen Carrie and..”

“This may come as a surprise to you, Eddie,” Ben chuckled. “But the play will definitely tell you enough about the storyline from beginning to end that you won’t need to read the book. Actually, you know, it tells you everything. It re-creates the story.”

Eddie flushed. “Yes, okay, I know that but Richie…”

“If I know anything about Richie Tozier, he’s not mad at you.” Ben shook his head. “To be honest, Richie would just usually shrug something like that off completely but on top of all the other stuff this year, I think it was just too much. Not to let you off the hook for standing him up, because that was still crappy, Eddie-“ Ben shot him a small glare and Eddie felt himself flush again. “But the rest of that stuff isn’t your fault and Richie wouldn’t blame it on you, either. So come to the show and talk to him.”

Eddie nodded, giving Ben a soft smile. “Thanks.”

“You’re welcome. And if it goes bad, I’m not the one who invited you.”

-

Eddie spent the rest of the week missing Richie and trying to read _Carrie._ It was surprisingly hard, Eddie finding himself getting stuck at the same point near the beginning over and over.

**To Billy <3 @ 7:55am: Carrie is a terrible book**

**From Billy <3 @ 9:21am: Most Stephen King books are. Don’t know how anybody can read that crap.**

**To Billy <3 @ 9:22am: They can’t all be that bad.**

**From Billy <3 @ 9:22am: They are. Have you ever read the demon clown/acid trip turtle book?**

**To Billy <3 @ 9:30am: Uh **

Saturday night came rolling around and anxiety was deep in Eddie’s chest, reaching out and threatening to suffocate him. He called Bill three hours before he needed to head out and reached a very unimpressed best friend on the other end of the line.

“No, Eddie.” Bill said in replacement of a _hello._ “You’re going to the fuh-fucking show and you’re going to uh-auh-apologize to that loud boy from your work. Then muh-maybe make out with his fuh-face.”

Bill hung up and Eddie stared at his phone in betrayal.

-

Eddie showed up outside the school’s large theatre and found Ben and Stanley both standing outside waiting for him. He was wearing the same sweater and jeans he’d worn when meeting Richie and the others at the bar that night that had felt like years earlier.

Ben smiled warmly as he approached, and Stan reached out to pat him on the shoulder. “Richie got back into town like an hour ago and looked like death ran him over twice,” Stanley said in that straight forward fashion of his. Eddie frowned deeply and Ben closed his eyes. “Don’t worry, Eddie, I’m sure it’s not because you left him standing at the side of the road for an hour. It’s probably because he hates his parents and just spent a week with them. Because you left him standing at the side of the road for an hour.”

“Are you done?” Ben asked, raising a brow. Stan smiled almost sarcastically and gestured towards the door. Not for the first time, Eddie wondered if he underestimated the friendship between Richie and Stan. 

They moved into the front row and took their seats, Eddie on one side of Ben and Stanley on the other. The lights came on the very scene that Eddie had deeply struggled getting back while reading the book began. Admittedly, it was a little hard to recreate a shower scene when you couldn’t have running water on a stage but Eddie almost didn’t notice.  

The play moved on swiftly and Eddie found himself getting into it when Beverly came out and stood center stage. He’d noticed her several times, playing on the biggest leads in the play, but he was suddenly floored looking at her in her 70s style clothes and deep red hair. She shot the crowd a half smirk and opened her mouth to sing.

“ _Guess what, ever since the world began. Same plot. Everyone’s been dumping on their fellow man.”_

Eddie’s eyes widened and looked over to Ben and Stan, whom were both staring up at their friend with similar looks of dazed adoration. “I’m straight now,” he whispered to them both. “Richie who?”

“Right?” Ben said, waggling his brow while Stan shook his head slightly. “He’s dating the girl playing Sue.” Eddie crinkled his brow, remembering the statements Richie had made about Mike and Stan, and the things he’d seen himself. Ben nodded, and patted Eddie on the wrist. “Life is complicated.” 

Richie was playing the male antagonists, Beverly’s boyfriend, and he looked so good in his badboy attire that Eddie’s breath hitched in his throat every time Richie came on the stage. He watched the scene where Richie and Bev were beginning to plan their methods of harassing Carrie White and Eddie had to clasp a hand over his mouth as Richie began to belt out his lyrics with an air of douchebaggery that Eddie wouldn’t have thought possible in the huge nerd he was falling so hard for.

“ _You always amaze me with the way that you think… If I were your daddy, I would buy you a shrink.”_

Eddie watched the rest of the show with his tongue heavy in his mouth and he stood along with Ben and Stan to applaud once it was over. As Ben rushed to the back of the stage to greet his friends, Eddie began to step back slowly. Stan reached out and clasped his wrist.

“Where are you going?” Stan asked, narrowing his eyes at him. “You’re coming with us, Eddie. We sat in the front row, there’s no way Richie didn’t see you. If you just leave right after, you might as well kiss every chance you have of making up with him goodbye.”

Eddie let out a shaky sigh and nodded. He followed Stan back to where the cast and their friends were all throwing their arms around each other. At the sight of them, Richie let out an excited noise and Eddie’s stomach dropped out his ass at how good he looked. The distance between the stage and Eddie’s seat hadn’t done him justice, Eddie now staring at the closeness of Richie’s dark eye makeup and sweaty, shiny face. A million thoughts, most dirty, ran through Eddie’s face until he truly thought he was going to forget how to breathe altogether.

Richie tossed his arms around Stan and pulled him in, the pair of them slapping each other on the back as they hugged.  Richie stepped away from, grinning widely and his eyes fell to Eddie. The grin faltered just slightly, something deep in Richie’s eyes bringing that horrible feeling of guilt back to Eddie’s stomach. “Heya, Eds. Like the show?”

“You were amazing,” Eddie said earnstely, nodding. His eyes met Mike and Beverly, and he smiled wider. “You all were. Really.” Beverly blew him a kiss and Eddie was pretty sure if he was even the slightest bit heterosexual he would have melted right into the floor and died in that moment.

“You guys are coming back to Mike and Richie’s for the party, right?” The pretty girl who’d played Sue said from her spot pressed in Stanley’s side. Eddie’s heart leapt in his chest and he felt Richie’s eyes burning into the side of the his face.

“Yeah,” Ben said from where he was- for whatever unnecessary reason- feeling Mike’s biceps and blushing. “We’re all coming. _Right, Eddie?”_

Eddie looked up, eyes meeting Richie. Richie gave him a soft smile. “Yeah. Yeah. We’re all coming.”

-

Eddie had been sitting awkwardly on Richie Tozier’s couch for two hours, pressed between Mike and Stanley for the panic that had been twisting his gut all night really started to get the better of him. Richie hadn’t looked or spoken to him once since they’d left the show and Eddie didn’t know how much longer he could deal with this.

Excusing himself quickly, Eddie jumped gave a poor excuse of getting another drink from the kitchen and fled. He gripped onto the counter, brain running wild as he squeezed his tearing up eyes shut. He could see Richie that first morning at the BrewStore, tired and sitting on the counter. Promising to find a coffee drink that Eddie would love, implying that Eddie would fall in love with Richie himself. Richie in his beanie outside the bar. Richie with his busted lip but bright smile. The feeling of Richie’s hand in his when Richie asked with a shaking, nervous voice if he wanted to go out.

Eddie let out a single sob, and slapped a hand over his mouth.

“Hey, Eddie, if you don’t like the-” Richie’s voice carried over to him as he came into the kitchen before stopping. His voice went through at least three emotions as Eddie wiped quickly at his damp cheeks. “Why are you crying? What happened?”

“I…” Eddie inhaled deeply. “I’m sorry, Richie. I shouldn’t be huh-here. I already messed every-everything up. I’ll just…” Eddie moved to walk past him but Richie’s hand came out and curled around his wrist.

“Come on the balcony with me, okay? I think… I think we have somethings we need to say to each other.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously Richie Tozier, Beverly Marsh and Mike Hanlon didn't write Carrie the Musical but just for reference here so nobody ~~sues~~~ me:
> 
> Carrie the Musical; book written by Lawrence Cohen, lyrics by Dean Pitchford and music by Michael Gore. Based on the story by Stephen King. 
> 
> Carrie the Musical soundtrack: https://open.spotify.com/album/3PayPUc6unazioHR4a6535


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Warning: This chapter deals with mentions of past abuse between Richie and his ex, not too detailed but it could be triggering to people so I’m putting a statement here before you read! Richie gives details about his relationship with his ex in this chapter. Also mentions of child/parent abuse, in the sense of Sonia Kaspbrak!

Richie still had a hand curled lightly around Eddie’s wrist as he guided him through the apartment crowded with their friends. Only Stan seemed to give them the slightest bit of attention as they came through, a singular raise of his brow as he watched them go by. Eddie knew that anybody who looked at him would know that he’d been crying, his post-crying face was always painfully obvious. His whole face would go pale except the skin around right around his eyes, which would turn a terrible blotchy pink. His bottom lip trembled and all he wanted to do was pull his arm slightly up in Richie’s grip, and tangle their fingers together.

He couldn’t though, so he didn’t.

Eddie walked forward as Richie closed the door to the balcony, reaching out and gripping onto the railing. It was cold and showed signs of the evenings early rain, and it chilled deep into his chest. He felt Richie’s hand come up and press between his shoulder blades. “What happened, Eddie?” Richie asked in a voice so soft, so full of concern that it almost brought Eddie to tears once more. “Did somebody say something to you? Because I swear to God…”

“No, no,” Eddie wiped at his still slightly damp cheeks. “Nobody said anything, everybody is so nice, you’re _so nice…_ I… I shouldn’t be here, I shouldn’t have come to your show and I shouldn’t have…” Eddie looked up at Richie with as much agony as he could manage and Richie’s soft smile faltered.

“I’m glad you came to the show, Eddie, and I’m glad you’re here now.” He said, letting his hand come down from Eddie’s back to his hips. Eddie swayed towards him on some deep ingrained reflex and they stood pressed nearly chest to chest. “I _like_ you, Eds. Have since day one.” Eddie felt like his throat was caving in when Richie’s face seemed to darken. “But… if you didn’t want to go out with me, you could have just told me that. I would’ve been fine.”

“No!” Eddie grabbed both of Richie’s hands, squeezing them tightly. “I wanted to go out with you, I really, really wanted to! I was actually so excited about it at first but then my brain… it went all… My ma always told me that I never needed anybody but her, you know? That anybody else would leave me, eventually, except for her.” Richie’s eyes went wide, and he moved forward to press his forehead softly against Eddie’s. “So, that got me all… spiralling.  I started thinking that if we started dating that we’d just break up and that it would ruin everything and I really didn’t want to ruin everything, you know? Because I really _like_ you and I didn’t even know it until I was thinking about loosing you because my mother’s right, people break up, we…”

Richie cut Eddie’s anxious rambling off with a soft kiss to the tip of Eddie’s nose. Eddie inhaled shakily, air getting caught in his throat, as his stomach flipped a good seventeen times. “Your mom was not right, Eds, okay? She was wrong, the fact that she would even say those things to you… I… God, Eddie.” Richie cupped the side of Eddie’s face, foreheads still touching. Eddie could feel every breath Richie took dancing across him, and he knew that the feeling was mutual. “You don’t deserve that, Eds. You deserve the like… absolute world.”

“How could you possibly still think that?” Eddie asked, tearing up once more. “After.. how I hurt you. And I didn’t… how… Richie…”

“You’re amazing, Eds. You are and…” Richie shook his head and maybe he had tears sticking to his lashes now too. “I adore you, okay? It’ll take way more than just blowing me off once for that to change.”

Eddie shook his head, hands coming to rest on their side of Richie’s neck. “You shouldn’t forgive me so easily, I know… It was a shitty thing to do, Richie.”

“Yeah.” Richie agreed, shrugging one shoulder and still smiling softly down at Eddie. “I’ve forgiven a lot worst people for a lot worst things. You were just scared, Eds, you weren’t doing it to be cruel.”

Eddie let out a shaky breath. “Richie, you don’t need to be so kind to people who hurt you. You don’t owe me anything, you don’t… You shouldn’t.”

Richie tugged Eddie to his chest and cupped the back of his head. “I don’t want my relationship with my ex to have anything to do with this, okay? I know… I know it _will,_ but I don’t want that. And I don’t want you to compare anything you do to what he did. You’re _not_ like him.” Eddie pressed his face into the side of Richie’s neck and inhaled deeply. “Patrick he… he was a bad person. He did bad things because he could, because he got off on it, and it took me a long time to figure that out. Too long. Everybody knew it before me, but I wouldn’t listen to anything. I thought I could help him. And it’s stupid and a cliché, I know it is but…”

Richie trailed off and Eddie looked up at him. Richie’s jaw was clenched tightly and Eddie could still the barest hints of the bruise under his eye. Not for the first time, Eddie’s stomach swooped at the thought of somebody doing that to Richie. “You’re too good, you know that?”

Richie chuckled, glossy eyes opening and staring down at Eddie. “If I was so good, I wouldn’t have called him after you stood me up.”

Eddie’s eyes widened. “I… Ben said you went home to your parents, I…”

“I did, after.” Richie said, reaching up to scratching at the back of his neck. “I got my dad to come pick me up from Patrick’s. I… I don’t send a lot of time with my parents, not for a few years now. When I young, my dad was barely around and my mom drank too much. Other people had it worse, but it put some sort of distant between us. It’s better now, between us, after Patrick last year but we’re not exactly close. I love them you know, but I don’t particularly _like_ them.”

Eddie nodded. He could certainly understand that. “Yeah. Richie… what happened at Patrick’s? Because you don’t look like he…”

Richie had a wave of hesitation cross over his face, frowning. It seemed as though the same promise rang through his head that was ringing through Eddie’s. “He didn’t but… That’s sort of what made me realize that it really was over forever, you know? When we were together, there were times Patrick would so sweet, even times he’d just be normal.” Eddie nodded, rubbing his hands on Richie’s forearms. “And those times were so great, and I remembered why I’d fallen in love with him in the first place. Because he hadn’t always been so terrible. But this time… He was pulling out all his cards, being perfect and sweet and amazing but I still… I didn’t feel anything for him. I didn’t love him anymore, when I looked at him all I could think of was that he was faking it. He didn’t love me, probably would never love anybody, and I didn’t love him anymore. So I called my dad, and I left.”

Eddie stared up at Richie, knowing his eyes danced with emotions that he couldn’t even begin to describe. He tried to find a hundred words to say to Richie then, something to relate but nothing could express what millions of things that Eddie was feeling. How he could explain his deepest thoughts for the goofy boy with the meme playlist that was somehow so full of sorrow yet the lightest person Eddie had ever met? At the end of a long period of silence, Eddie could only settle on a simple “You’re amazing.”

Richie’s face crossed a seeming endless amount of expressions in five seconds before he leant down and kissed Eddie. Eddie’s stomach swooped down and maybe even fell out of his body completely as he couldn’t stop himself from fisting his hands in Richie’s shirt and pulling him close. 

Richie pulled back after a time, staring down at Eddie with a dazed expression that Eddie knew he was matching. “We.. I.. Eddie.”

Eddie swallowed hard and nodded, in complete agreement with Richie’s non-sensorial sentence. Richie grabbed Eddie’s hand and used it to tug Eddie back inside the apartment. “Everybody out!” Richie called the second the moment they entered the building. “I don’t care where you go, but you can’t stay here!”

“I live here!” Mike cried in an offended tone while everybody stood up and started gathering their things without question. Mike was smirking though and moved as well, once Richie stuck his tongue out at his room mate.

After quickly said their goodbyes, matching with smirking faces and raised eyebrows, and Richie slammed the door the second Stanley stepped out of it. Richie pressed his back up against it, staring wildly at Eddie. Eddie knew he was flushed from head to toe.

He stepped towards Richie anyway, body suddenly overcoming with a sort of confidence that until this moment, he didn’t even know he had. He pressed his hands against Richie’s shoulders, holding him more firmly against the apartment door, and Bill’s words sang through his head. _Maybe make out with his face._

So Eddie did. He pushed himself up onto his tiptoes and pressed his lips against Richie’s. Richie responded immediately with enthusiasm, pressing back insistently and reaching out to squeeze the skin on Eddie’s hips. Eddie let a hand push upwards to tangle in Richie’s messy mop of black curls and the other to cup Richie’s jaw.

Richie let out a small wimper into Eddie’s mouth when Eddie’s fingers tugged on the curls. “Eddie.. Eddie,” Richie panted, pulling away and his head dropping back against the front door. “I…”

“I know,” Eddie whispered, nudging their noses together gently. “Me too, Richie, I… Me too.”

Eddie didn’t know how long they stood like that, bodies pressed together close enough that Eddie wasn’t concerned with whose limbs were whose anymore. Breathing each other’s air, staring into each other’s eyes.

“Eddie..” Richie said slowly, voice cracking and torturing. “I’m.. I’m a mess, you know? You can’t go into this thinking that I’m better or I’m fine because I’m still totally fucked up.” Eddie swallowed harshly but refused to break his gaze with Richie. “And we definitely can’t do this if you think.. if you think this would like _fix_ whatever issues I’ve got because I’ll probably be fucked up forever and-“

Eddie cut Richie off with a soft kiss to his lips. “I’m not trying to fix you, you don’t need fixing, Richie. So what if you’re kind of fucked up? I’m pretty fucked up, too. And like… maybe we’re both so fucked up that this could never work and that’s… that’s terrifying. It _terrifies_ me and the only thing that’s more terrifying is that I still want to try. I can’t imagine not trying it because, Richie, I-“ Eddie cut himself off, swallowing hard and finally breaking eye contact.

Richie’s hands slid up underneath Eddie’s shirt, thumbs rubbing into the skin on Eddie’s hips and making Eddie break out into goosebumps.

Richie nodded once and Eddie bounced forward to kiss him again.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys..... yall... first of all, i want to apologize that this is terrible small ass piece of shit chapter but really... those two details and one little ~~its a special tool that will help us later~~ needed to be said in this final part, so i didn't see much sense in dragging it out!! 
> 
> so this story is over, and im a little sad but i have another multichaptered fic within this verse that should be posting the first or second week of november but if you wish for the story to end here, the this story is written as completed for a reason!!
> 
> thank you to everybody who followed this story all the way to its ending, and a thank you in advance to anybody who's going to give the sequel a chance!!

Richie rolled over, more than 70 percent still asleep and felt himself landing onto top of another body laying beside him. Letting out a rather unmanly scream, Richie launched himself backwards and tumbled out of his bed. Eddie made a slight incoherent noise from his side of the bed, pulling his head up from underneath the pillows and crinkling his brows at Richie’s fallen figure.

If Eddie being late that one moment had been a beautiful sight, it was nothing compared to Eddie freshly awoken with his brown curls flying in multiple directions and freckles extra visible against the sleep pale skin. “Richie… what is? What’s wrong? Are we being murdered?”

Richie chuckled nervously. “No.” He shook his head and crawled up into his bed. “No, I just… I wasn’t expecting you to be here.”

Eddie raised a brow, face becoming nervous and overly concerned. “What… why wouldn’t I be here? We went to bed together…” Eddie’s heart hammered in his chest, racing and burning. A similar look of panic contorted on Richie’s face.

“No, I just… I’ve never had anybody stay the whole night before after.” Richie shrugged sheepishly, coming back to sit on the bed. “You know, the few one night stands I had in high school or whatever, you always left before they woke up and Patrick..” Richie sighed. “He didn’t really like to be touched after. He’d either leave and go home or like go sleep on the couch.”

Eddie frowned and reached out to tangle his hands with Richie. “I’d never leave you in the middle of the night, Rich. Never.”

Richie cupped the side of Eddie’s face and pressed their lips together softly. Eddie sighed happily into the kiss and squeezed Richie’s hand tightly. Eddie felt his heart fluttering in his chest as Richie smiled against his lips.

“Do you want breakfast?” Richie asked lightly. “I can make…. cereal.”

Eddie laughed, letting his head fall forward to rest on Richie’s shoulder. “Cereal sounds great.”

Eddie sat at the coffee table as Richie poured the Cheerios into two bowls and prepared cups of coffee. As Richie slid a mug towards Eddie, he shook his head slightly but knew better than to argue. As he put the cup to his lips and sipped lightly, he let out a small gasp. “Rich, what did you put in this?”

Richie blinked at him a few times. “Uh… cream?”

“It’s really good.”

Richie beamed.


End file.
